The Quest for Immortality Chapter 1: Mo Hua
In the 20,022nd year of the Dao Calendar, precisely on September's tenth day.
Within Tongxian City, beyond the Tongxian Sect's entrance, atop a mountain slope.
The ten-year-old Mo Hua, clad in the simple attire of an outer sect disciple, crouched indifferently behind a massive boulder at the mountain's foot, clutching a grass root and meticulously sketching intricate designs into the dirt.
As the hour of Mao arrived, sect disciples heading up for lessons began ascending in pairs or small groups, their voices filled with chatter and mirth.
A plump lad in the usual outer sect garb, decorated with fine jade accessories and featuring a round face with tiny eyes, arrived with a couple of followers and spotted Mo Hua behind the stone, happily tracing patterns.
The plump boy glanced around carefully, confirming no sect elders were nearby, before he softly called:
"Mo Hua!"
Mo Hua raised his head, his striking features resembling a fine artwork, his gaze pure like drawing from a clear, crystalline pool.
The plump boy whispered, "Is it ready?"
The young Mo Hua, acting with unusual maturity for his age, thumped his chest confidently, "Leave it to me, no need to worry," and then pulled out a few array sheets from his storage pouch—sheets of white paper inked with red—and passed them to the plump boy."Make sure everything looks right."
The plump boy accepted them gravely, unfolded one to inspect, and then wore a troubled look:
"I don't get it..."
Mo Hua explained calmly:
"The teacher gave out homework on the fundamental patterns of the Five Elements Array. I sketched them for you and added six deliberate errors so the teacher won't suspect you didn't do them yourself…"
"Six errors… isn't that excessive?"
Mo Hua gazed at him quietly.
The plump boy quickly acknowledged his error and pondered:
"Greed isn't wise. It's fortunate I can submit the teacher's assignment at all. Excelling too much might draw attention. If the teacher notices and informs my father, he'd punish me harshly, and that wouldn't be worthwhile…"
Mo Hua nodded approvingly, "Well said, Young Master An, you grasp it so swiftly!"
The plump boy slipped two spirit stones into Mo Hua's palm, "Brother Mo, your judgment is sharp, recognizing my smarts! Take these spirit stones; I'll seek you out again for the next array homework from the teacher!"
With that, he secured the arrays in his robe and dashed toward the mountain top.
Mo Hua stowed the two spirit stones securely and grabbed another grass root to resume his ground drawings.
Moments later, a slender young master appeared, fanning himself with a gold-dusted paper fan, his angular noble visage adorned with even more jade trinkets.
Mo Hua offered him an array diagram as well. The slender young master examined it briefly before gesturing to an attendant. The attendant stepped up, received the diagram, and gave Mo Hua two spirit stones.
The slender young master claimed the array diagram yet lingered. Abruptly, he snapped his fan shut with haughtiness and declared, "This young master excels in array formations too; it's merely that I lack time for these simple ones, so I had you prepare them."
Mo Hua, uninterested in prolonging the talk, seized the grass root and went back to sketching on the earth.
The slender young master, a touch irritated, then scoffed, "It's rumored that among the early Qi-condensation disciples of Tongxian Sect, your arrays are the finest. I'm curious how you stack up against me. Perhaps we ought to have a contest?"
Mo Hua mused inwardly, You're letting me handle your array assignments; what does that say about your proficiency?
Yet, following the motto that peace leads to prosperity, Mo Hua looked up and selected complimentary phrases:
"Naturally, the young master's array skills outshine all. The Qian clan leads Tongxian City, and your family's array heritage surpasses that of other practitioners."
The slender young master's face softened a bit, then he inquired, "So, among Tongxian Sect's early Qi-condensation disciples, is there anyone better at arrays than me?"
"There are a couple…"
The slender young master frowned, "Who?"
"Such as myself…" Naturally, Mo Hua kept that thought silent.
"Plenty of them, more than I can list offhand."
The slender young master grew visibly irked.
"That's a positive!" Mo Hua stated boldly, without truth.
The slender young master jeered, "Folks from lesser families, without my wealth in spirit stones, yet outdoing me in arrays—you're saying I'm dim and inferior? How is that positive?"
Mo Hua responded, "Consider this: at merely the Qi-condensation level, you command Foundation Establishment experts; as a first-grade array master, you direct second-grade ones. How impressive! The greater the talents serving you, the more your own prowess shines!"
The slender young master hesitated, then enlightenment dawned, "It holds some logic!"
"Exactly?" Mo Hua confirmed.
The slender young master agreed, surveying the cultivators below with an even loftier chin:
"Precisely! No matter your gifts or diligence, ultimately, don't you serve my Qian family?"
Having cleverly persuaded the Qian family youth and watched him depart with pride, Mo Hua returned to his array practice on the ground using the grass root.
Not much later, a few affluent disciples arrived, trading spirit stones for arrays and purchasing multiple from Mo Hua. Once his handwritten array diagrams were all sold, he had amassed twelve spirit stones.
For a loose cultivator, twelve spirit stones amounted to a decent haul, yet for advancing in cultivation, it fell short.
Mo Hua let out a sigh, a trace of resignation crossing his young features.
For those at the bottom of cultivation, the road ahead seemed utterly dim…
In the inaugural year of the Dao Calendar, more than twenty millennia past, the cultivation realm's mightiest force—the Dao Court—brought the nine provinces under one rule, granting lands to noble houses and sects while instituting a uniform ranking to regulate cultivation vocations.
The Dao Court further issued the "Dao Laws" to curb cultivators from reckless slaughter, plunder, and essence extraction.
Because of these measures, the cultivation world expanded and thrived across twenty thousand years, blooming vibrantly with expansive lands and innumerable practitioners.
Nevertheless, as the Dao Court basked in splendor, noble lineages flourished, and sects held sway over territories.
Solitary low-tier loose cultivators, unaffiliated, endured toil without prospects for progress.
Over twenty thousand years of growth in the cultivation domain, mortals lacking spiritual roots had been weeded out, survived only by the spiritually rooted who could practice. Yet with rising cultivator numbers came greater spirit energy drain, exhausting the realm's vital essence.
Today, to progress in cultivation, one required not just teachings but also spirit stones.
However, dominant clans seized spirit mines, and grand sects hoarded legacies, leaving common loose cultivators blocked from the path.
In Tongxian City, most such independents, bereft of teachings and stones, lingered eternally at Qi-condensation.
The Qi-condensation stage served as the lowliest insects beneath the immense heavenly dao.
Mo Hua counted among these myriad insects.
And probably forever!
A touch of sourness appeared on Mo Hua's boyish countenance.
The heavenly dao may be just, but cultivation decidedly isn't…
Mo Hua, a second-layer Qi-condensation loose cultivator, hailed from a Qi-cultivator household. His father, Mo Shan, earned by slaying demons, constantly clashing with fiends and bearing wounds aplenty. His mother toiled in kitchens, her lungs seared by fumes and fire, frequently hacking in agony.
His parents pinched every spirit stone to secure Mo Hua's entry into Tongxian Sect's outer sect for practice.
Yet regardless of Mo Hua's efforts, his average spiritual roots—marginally above the norm but distant from the prodigies swarming cultivation—doomed him to mediocrity.
No amount of practice would likely elevate him beyond Qi-condensation.
Given the household's poverty and stone scarcity, Mo Hua could only reach sixth-layer Qi-condensation like peers before exiting the sect for some livelihood.
But Mo Hua possessed innate frailty!
Tool forging or demon hunting, typical for robust cultivators, ill-suited the naturally delicate Mo Hua, who might even fail to secure sustenance.
If he wed and fathered offspring later, the load would grow, all stones funneled to family support.
Lacking stones for practice, Mo Hua's realm would stall indefinitely, dooming him to Qi-condensation existence.
Like Tongxian City's penniless loose cultivators.
Like the cultivation world's myriad base-tier practitioners.
Perpetually a mere Qi-condensator!
The ten-year-old Mo Hua exhaled deeply, steadied his thoughts, and proceeded into the sect for lessons. Following a day's practice, he went back to the disciple quarters, perused some practice texts, and by Zi hour, retired to his bedding.
As Mo Hua shut his eyes, a broken stele surfaced within his consciousness sea.
The stele lacked any engravings, yet from the initial sight, Mo Hua recognized its title:
Dao Stele!